Millions of lei is spent inefficiently on maintaining boarding schools, ombudswoman

The state spends inefficiently millions of lei on maintaining boarding schools and special schools. In some of these institutions, the number of employees is twice larger than of children, the ombudswoman for children's rights Tamara Plamadeala told a news conference, Info-Prim Neo reports. There are 25 children and 52 employees at the boarding school for children with behavioral difficulties in Solonet village of Soroca district. “A sum of 2.5 million lei for 25 children is catastrophic for the state budget,” Tamara Plamadeala said. Other specialized institutions also have a large number of employees, including the special school in Marculesti town of Floresti district, the boarding school in Vascauti, Floresti, the boarding school in Napadova, Floresti. Tamara Plamadeala said that 80% of the children who attend these schools have parents and it would be better to give the money allocated for maintaining these institutions to families that cannot raise the children at home. The ombudswoman also said that most of the children in boarding schools are illiterate. They have what to eat and what to wear, but do not know how to read and write. Tamara Plamadeala said that there are over 10,000 institutionalized children in Moldova. Under the international standards, the children should stay in residential institutions at most one year. In Moldova, they stay there until they finish the ninth grade. Another reason for concern is the situation of the children whose parents are abroad. There are about 35,000 such children. Many of them remain without supervision and have delinquent behavior, the ombudswoman said. The news conference was held on the eve of the International Children's Day.